FitAthlon – Westport CT 2013

* From: Scott Sweeney* Event: CT Fitathlon – Westport

* Event Details

This was Fitathlon’s first race in Southern CT. To date they have only been offered in Central CT. The event was held at Sherwin Island State Park which is one of CT’s State Parks right on Long Island Sound. Being that the race was held in October, the beach was relatively vacant. Parking was free and you were able to park less than 100 yards from registration. Fitathlon was able to use the main beach pavillion which gave them not only a great view of the water but also provided restrooms and sun/rain protection. The vendor list is relatively short at these races…a local gym, local kickboxer and a free massage after the race. Race Schwag was almost non-exisitent other than a T-shirt for all participants.

This was my second Fitathlon this year and both races are very disorganized from the beginning. My daughter and I both signed up to volunteer and were asked to asked to be on site by 7:30. Showing up early, there was chaos from the start. Obstacles were just being set up (by volunteers) and the first race was set to go off at 8:30. Registration had already begun and the course was only half completed. Luckily the obstacles were not very involved and were set up with 10 minutes to spare.

* Race Details

Fitathlon is a Fitness oriented 5K. Each participant has the option to choose which catagory to run in based on their abilities – Newbie, Begineer, Challenger or Competitor. The newbie, begineer and challenger waves alternate back and forth throughout the day and there is only one Competitor round offered. The Competitor wave is the money round offering a few hundred dollars to the winners in each class. The Competitors are the only ones held to completing all obstacles without failing. Most of the obstacles were on either crushed stone or grass with the exception of the beach obstacles. The obstacles are listed below

1) Calisthenics – based on which group you are in you have to do either 20,30, 40 or 50 each of Squats, lunges, jumping squats and jumping lunges and the race begins.

2) Run for a small distance

3) walking lunges – based on your grouping determines how far you have to go – Roughly 50-100 yards of lunges

4) straight into six 5 foot walls

5) Speed and Agility portion – Roughly a dozen trees had signs saying “touch here”. The trees zigzagged back and forth over roughly 100 yards. this obstacle ended by weaving in and out of posts in the ground and then jumping roughly 2 dozen haybales as you ran.

6) Tire flip – again based on your rating you had to flip various sized tires between 4-12 times.

7) Chain pull – pulling a weighted chain out to a distance based on your ability level

8) 70 pound wheel barrow push uphill out to a distance based on your ability level

11) 8 foot walls – three sloped 8 foot walls to go over with a knotted rope on each one

12) 60 pound ruck in the woods. Roughly an 1/8 of a mile loop

13) Beach obstacles – roughly 20 over under obstcles on the beach, which lead into a 10 x 10 horizontal cargo new to get across into a 8 foot crawl in the sand under a structure. This was repeated 3 times across the beach

14) Monkey bars – bars were free spinning which made it challenging

15) Rope slam – 30 seconds of whipping a 20 foot long, 2″ rope up and down. Rope was anchored into the ground

The New England Spahtens is the leading obstacle course race community in the country. Since our launch in 2012, we’ve consistently helped make New England the best region for obstacle course racing, supporting local racing with our often copied #racelocal program, and supporting new racers and serious athletes alike.